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PhET Review

Worth it

Should I use PhET?

Interactive science and math simulations from University of Colorado Boulder - phet.colorado.edu

· 1 month ago

A clear buy for science and math teachers, homeschoolers, and self-study learners: the core simulations are free, research-validated, and run offline. Skip the $5,000/year PhET Studio tier unless your organization needs custom or branded simulations.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 40+ public sources; many snippets truncated, so confidence is medium.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo support-quality evidence in sources
  • Security posture

Pricing

Free

Simulations

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
PhET StudioFrom $5,000/yr

Best for

  • K-12 and undergraduate science teachers
  • Budget-tight classrooms
  • Homeschool and self-study learners
  • Districts needing offline sims

Not for

  • Corporate L&D teams — sims target school science
  • Buyers needing built-in grading or LMS analytics
  • Anyone wanting SLA-backed enterprise support
  • Orgs wanting custom sims without a $5k/yr budget

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Studio pricing starts at $5,000/year; most teachers need nothing beyond the free tier

medium

Guess: nonprofit university project — no SLAs or dedicated vendor support

low

Offline use requires downloading sims ahead of time

low

Translation/localization quality has varied; historically a known challenge

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Core simulations are free, including offline use
  • Meta-analyses show positive learning gains
  • Used by tens of millions worldwide
  • Collects no user PII
  • Embeds in PowerPoint slides and Lumio lessons

Cons

  • Paid Studio tier starts at $5,000/year
  • One publicly disclosed XSS on the site
  • Guess: no native student tracking; teachers supply their own worksheets

Sources & method

- 12 sources - No user PII collected per privacy policy; one disclosed XSS report on the site.

official x4review x6security x1news x1
  • Disclosed cross-site scripting (XSS) report, Open Bug Bounty lists a publicly reported XSS vulnerability on.edu; fix status unverified.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 12

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Core product free and research-backed
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Teachers report easy classroom adoption
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Hundreds of sims: physics, chemistry, math, biology
  • Support quality. No support-quality evidence in sources
  • Security posture: 3/5. No PII stored; one disclosed XSS
  • $5,000/yr Starting price (Studio tier) Core simulations are free
  • Yes Free tier Full sim library, web + offline
  • Tens of millions Scale Users worldwide, per PhET
  • $3M+ donated Funding Wieman donation plus Moore Foundation grants

Pricing

Simulations

Free

  • Full sim library
  • Offline downloads
  • iPad/Chromebook + mobile apps

PhET Studio

From $5,000/yr

  • Custom/branded sims
  • Sim-building canvas
  • For orgs and publishers

Security

No user PII collected per privacy policy; one disclosed XSS report on the site.

  • Disclosed cross-site scripting (XSS) reportOpen Bug Bounty lists a publicly reported XSS vulnerability on.edu; fix status unverified.⁵

What users say

Teachers widely use PhET sims in class and app users report long-term satisfaction, with research meta-analyses backing the learning gains.

“PhET simulations. anyone else use them in class?”
Reddit, r/ScienceTeachers
“I have loved PhET for ye”
Apple App Store review

Alternatives

Compare PhET with each alternative.

  • OER Commons PhET collection

    Curated free sim lessons with teaching materials

Companies that use it

  • SMART Technologies (Lumio)
  • Excelschools
  • K12 (Stride)
Full analysis

Based on 40+ public sources; many snippets truncated, so confidence is medium.

Free, research-backed science sims used by tens of millions — buy for classrooms. Skip the $5k/yr Studio tier unless you need custom sims.

Methodology

Based on 40+ public sources; many snippets truncated, so confidence is medium.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. PhET Studio Overview - Pricingphet.colorado.edu
    official
  2. PhET Privacy Policy - No user PII keptphet.colorado.edu
    official
  3. PhET Product Security Pagephet.colorado.edu
    official
  4. Partner with PhET - tens of millions of usersphet.colorado.edu
    official
  5. Open Bug Bounty XSS report on phet.colorado.eduopenbugbounty.org
    security
  6. PhET simulations - Reddit r/ScienceTeachersreddit.com
    review
  7. PhET Simulations - App Store reviewsapps.apple.com
    review
  8. Meta-analysis of PhET effectivenessiopscience.iop.org
    review
  9. Learning Cabinet - PhET free accesslearningcabinet.org
    review
  10. Add PhET Simulations to PowerPointclasswork.com
    review
  11. Former CU Professor Donates $3Mgovtech.com
    news
  12. Top 10 Virtual Lab Simulatorsbestdevops.com
    review

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